Cotton fiber dtjst and preparing the same



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J. R. FRANCE.' COTTON FIBER DUST AND PRBPARING THB SAME No. 420,447. Patented Peb.4,1890.

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COTTON FIBER DUST AND PREVPARING THB SAME.

1\0.420,447.Y Patented Feb.4,1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JOSEPH R. FRANCE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

COTTON-Elena Dust AND PREP/mme THE SAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 420,447, dated February 4, 1890.

Application {ilcd January 21,1888. Serial No|l19,845. (No model.) l

To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, J osErH R. FRANCE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of New York, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inthe process of preparing cotton fiber as a base for the manufacture of nitro-cellulose, and also in the product produced thereby. 4

For this invention I have received no Letters Patent whatever.

The following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

. My invention relates to a process, by which the cotton fiber may bey carded, combed, or disposed in the form of a card or lap having the fibers arranged therein longitudinally instead of being irregularly or to some extent transversely disposed, the card or lap to be subsequently fed or offered to the action of a knife or knives cutting across the lap or card by such short stops or stages that at each cut of the knife the approximate ends of the iibers willbe cut off in extremely short lengths or particles, and so as to present substantially the appearance of cotton-dust made from the fiber.

It also relates to the product or article pro duced thereby.

The process and the product above stated are accomplished and obtained by means of the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and described herein,in which- Figures l and 2 are opposite end views of the cuttingqnachine,and Fig. 3 is a rear view with some of the parte removed to show other parts. l

Similar letters represent similar parts throughout the several ligures.

It has heretofore been customary to` cut old rope into Vshort lengths for treatment preparatory to or in the early stages of paper making. Thev object of this operation is to get the material into manageable lengths for manipulation in the engines. It has, however, so far as I am aware, been hitherto supposed that cotton, when brought by whatever means to a similar state as to length and size of fiber, required no further mechanical manipulation to prepare it for the treatment required to nitrate the same. AAt the same time there has been well-recognized difficulty and uncertainty in realizing the theoretical or expected results when treating cotton fibers, which have been attributed to variation of strength and to otherfaults in the chemicals, and also to still other causes. I have discovered that these difficulties and uncertainties are due largely, if not entirely, to obstruction in the fiber itself, when it is used in its"natu ral state and length of growth, and in the longer fibers when cut or reduced in length to an in sufficient degree. I have also discovered that when reduced to a nely-divided state by chemical means, preparatory to further treatment, as for the formation of nitrocellulose, the chemicals used for that purpose themselves present new obstructions to further chemical action, and consequently do not furnish a remedy.

My explanations are that the cotton and other vegetable'iibers have for their protection a glazed surface, as it were enameled by nature; that they are tubular and 'cellular in structure `and are provided with a natural lubricating semi fluid vcharacteristic oil, gum, or other material, or a combination of such substances; that these tubes in their natural state and length are open at one end only, a'nd in that condition, as also whencut and open at both ends, but of some length, present a line or route of least resistance to chemical access and action by way of the inside of the tubular part of the structure; that such access is effected, in part, at least, by capillary attraction, which is to an increasing extent resisted and counter-balanced by the air or other contents of the tubes as it proceeds, and is finally arrested, while the chemicals are themselves subject to change as they progress, and therefore to a modification of their natural action on the substance of the liber; and, finally, that most, if not all, of these elements of obstruction vary in different samples of cotton and other vegetable fiber grown on different soils, in different climates, and under other varying conditions to such an extent that these variations defy anticipation and remedy when the fiber of natural length, or only partially shortened, is treated in the IOO ordinary Way, however uniform the acids used may vbe in strength and proportions, and

however carefully the manipulations mayV be conducted, the final result being a product which is not completely and uniformly changed by or in the chemical action.

pulverizing, grinding, or otherwise reducing cotton fiber to as great an extent as possible, even to a dust, by mechanical means preparatory to any treatment by chemicals. The principle of this part of my invention is that the glaze is broken up or disturbed mechanically, and thereby allows external accessV when subjected to chemicals in subsequent treatments; that the number of openings of the tubes is doubled every time a length of fiber is cut until capillary obstruction is neutralizedorobviated in all samples of cotton,

andhateuniformity of result is obtained in, all chemical action thereon, because all parts i of theonass are reached and acted upon at orl about the same time andbefore the acids become changed, Weakened,;or modified by -an-1 teeedent action, adulteration, or obstruction from the characteristic oil, gum, (itc.

I take thecotton in its natural state-and subject it to the following treatment or pro` cess# The cottonis first cleaned in fanyordinaryavay, all dirt or other foreign matterbe-` ingfremoved therefrom and the'fiber being left as. pure as "it can bemade. Then it is formed-into a lap, This is done, as inordinary treatment for spinning, by passing .the

material throughan opener, then through aV since the material will then draw properly,

and `it iscarded for that purpose. I, however, do not require or desire to avail myself of the fact that the fibers will cling together and draw more perfectlyivlien lying side by side. My object `in disposing them in this way is that I may thereby present a card or mass of liber to the cutting knife-edges at right angles, so as to be uniformly cut oif at the ends nearestlthe knives and across the lay of the card, since in that Way the material is most thoroughly and quickly reduced to dust, whereas if the libers extend on lines parallel to the knife-edges or line of cut they Willsomeof them-be removed from the card by separation without cutting, which would tend to defeat my object or at least impair the results I am seeking.

The endless apron N, passing around the feed-roller R', which may be Iiuted for the purpose and acts with its associate roller R, carries the card D into the grasp of these two Imeet ,p and overcome these difficulties by cutting,

second (31g) of an inch, that being the lengthv of the out I prefer for cotton, though it may beincreased or diminished at will, as desired, Without avoiding my invention. The cotton-dust drops into a box or other receptacle (not shown) andis removed at intervals.

The maehinemay be further. described as follows: The knife-wheel Wis provided with,

say, four arms-to the outer faces of which the knivesdi are secured in any ordinary Way. The rear kof oneset ofthese arms is shown in Fig. l in perspective. The knives K are disposed spirally, and, beginning vatone side of the knife K, eut across it, each in turn, as the knife-wheel W revolves.` l

P is the driving-pulleyof the cutter, and through the gear-wheel on its shaft S2 and the large f.;ear-wheel"Gr` on-the cutternvheel shaft directly operates theknives K. By

means of lthe eccentric cam E and its connecting-rod, operating 'through the rocken arms A and A', the vibrating-cam C, and the clampdiead Il, the clamp C is raised and loW- ered as required to allowthecard D to ad- Vance and to compress and hold it during the cutting operation. rihe functions of the rockerarms A and A are to move the vibrat- IOO ing cam C and thereby depress the clamp l head and clamp, and also, through the pawls I and P and the ratehet-wheel R2, cause the feed-rollers Rand R to advance the card D as required step by step. The cams C are supported, one at each side of `the machine "and outside of the frame F, upon stemsyS,

which move in guide-blocks G', and are surrounded by spiral springs S7, which 'when the rocker-arm A is moved to the short arm of the cam C cause the camC the clamp-head Il, and the clamp C to rise and release the IIO card for the subsequent advance of the same, l

The clamp and clamp-head move in thecurved guide-slots H on lines described from the center of the knife-Wheel W. To accommodate the wear of the knife K, it is pivoted ateach .end at I and provided with two arms A2, which are secured and moved at will by means of the set-screws S and S', as required for that purpose. The feed-roller Between the clamp Gand Ris movable slightly under control of springs at each end in order to accommodate the cards.

Instead of reducing the cotton ber to dust by cutting or by carding and cutting in the manner and by means of the mechanism described, I contemplatev the use of' any machinery, known or unknown, in which by a cutting, abeating, a grinding, or a pulverizf ing action alone, or by a cutting, a pulverizing, a beating, and a grinding action combined inA any form, the cotton ber may be operated upon and reduced to a nely-divided or dust-likecondition; and I do not intend to conne or limit myself to this or to any particular kind of machinery for reducing the cotton ber to dust, my object being to take the cotton ber in its natural state and reduce it as nearly as possible within reasonable limits to the condition of dust by mechanical means, so as to leave the article in the natural state otherwise than as I have described. In other words, I seek to avoid all methods of reducing the berv to a nely-divided state by any means, chemical or other, that will leave therein any of the obstructive elements heretofore mentioned,wl1ich will interfere with, delay, hinder, or prevent the required reactions and treatment of the cottondust required in making use of the article or material in the various Ways and for thevari ous purposes to which it is or maybe adapted. I can accomplish the same results if, in addition to carding,I spin the cotton ber into yarns after carding it, (although that operation is unnecessary and a waste of time and expense,) and in single threads or in hanks composed of many threads expose the material to the same cutting or pulverizing action, cotton-dust being the product of such treatment.

The article of cotton-dust produced by mechanical means in the manner described is distinguishable from other articles, and especially from cotton-dust or other ber dust ob tained by chemical means, byits appearance, as dust of cotton, and as having more of the natural characteristics of cotton ber than the dust obtained by chemical means, by means other than mechanical, or by mechanical means after chemical treatment.

Thisl new or improved article of cotton-dust produced by mechanical means may be 'sold in the market as an article of manufacture, and maybe used in the arts as the base of various products in which the pure cotton ber is the natural base, being treated subsequently as required for vthe desired purpose, some of which products and the methods of producing the same are described in other applications filed by me January 7, 1884, Serial No. 116,641, and January 9, 1884, Serial Nos. 116,929 and 116,930. x

I am aware that Wood and woody ber have been reduced to granular form by mechanical means, and that an impalpable powder has been produced from cotton ber by chemical treatment, succeeded by pulping, drying,

and sieving. I am also aware that various vegetable substances after pulping have been pressed into sheets,.dried, and punched, cut,vv pulverized,or ground to produce a ne powder,

which is subsequently treated with acids in the manufacture of nitro-cellulose. These I do not claim.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. The herein-described process of preparing cotton for subsequent chemical treatment as a base for the manufacture of nitro-cellulose,which consists in taking` the cotton ber in its natural state and reducing it to cottondust by mechanical means alone,subst antially as described.

2. The herein-described process of preparing cotton for subsequent chemical treatment as a base for the manufacture of nitro-cellu lose, which consists in rst forming the cotton bers into a card or lap, and subsequently cutting or otherwise reducing the bers in their natural state to cotton-dust by mechanical means alone, substantially as described.

6. The herein-described article of manufacture, consisting of mechanically-comminuted cotton-ber dust for use in the manufacture of nitro-cellulose.

J AMEs A. SKELToN, A WrLLrAM J. STEVENS. 

